William Blake's prophetic art and poetry
Copyright 2005 David Whitmarsh-Knight. This blog is an important component of www.thefourzoas.com and the ideas within copyrighted. No part can be used without unambiguous and specific permission from the author of this web-site. My thanks to Jody Shipley for his freely given web work...his generosity and commitment to the enhancement of his students and friends is acknowledged and deeply appreciated.

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Friday, 27 April 2007

THE TWO NIGHT(S) THE SEVENTH RECONCILED IN STEREO-TEXTUAL AESTHETIC UNITY.

in this post or the next i feel there needs to be a detailing of the alternative Nights the Seventh. AND the first analysis of Blake's concept of a double fall in The Four Zoas (the double fall is examined in detail in Chapter VIII of The Four Zoas Explained). it's a matter of time and physical strength. i have very short 'windows of health' in which to work.

please note, all my comments below on The Four Zoas, refer to other critics strictly in terms of Blake's plots in The Four Zoas, for examples, my textual points are made before erdman's and lincoln's infra red studies and other wide-ranging developments in biography and text (bentley) too numerous to mention... clearly, each of the full scale studies (though in fact after mine) are uniquely significant in each scholar's contributions. none are or can be 'replaced' in any sense.......it is the paradigmatic failure to trace Blake's plots or linear narratives that has persuaded me to put my analysis of The Four Zoas forward, updated in its survey of the field, but otherwise and i think rightly so, unedited...its conclusions are fresh to the field

my analysis of Jerusalem, the first full-scale line by analysis is entirely fresh to the field.

METATEXT 4: survey of the field, Blake's text, and his three compositional stages April 07

summaries of the various positions of the two Night the Seventh are needed, for example lincoln finds The Four Zoas plot-less, thinks the manuscript to have been written in four stages, not unlike the two major stages, a final interlocking stage to complete the plot with, as shown in my research a decade or so earlier, a completion sequence of late penciled additions. the existential truth of it is that reading the details of the Blake's textual architecture in The Four Zoas is a highly specialised interest indeed. and i do respect the persistence in attempts to work out what a 250 year old dead poet, the most incomprehensible genius in the english literature, means. Blake's prophecies are up there on the pinnacle of critical literary challenges.

however, in particular to dissertation committed students, i summarise below the pages that textually demonstrate Blake's intentional, structural, stereo-textual plot. ... the summary helps because it cherry picks the key texts...so that there are not all that many pages to study or trace to short cut to blake's literary intentions... and its almost literally a matter of running the finger along a line, turning to other lines, and pages and running the finger... backwards and forwards tracing emendations, seeing characters clarify, thematic unities contrast, narrative shifts emerge, dimensional frames of events settle into linear meanings, and the envisioning of developments in the growth of Blake's aesthetic achievments, the logic of textual science, and his unmatched success at completing a 'then unpublishable' epic poem.

here are the sections....trawled out of William Blake's The Four Zoas Explained. The pages that follow below define Blake's compositional stages, namely two major stages and a third stage (including late penciled additions). this final stage reconciles the two earlier stages and establishes the simultaneity of the two versions of Night the Seventh. it should be taken into account that much more textual analysis is embedded in the analysis (such as the additional fragments and the opening lines):

i think lincoln's study contextually valuable, and several e-mails from others to me quite independently, both welcoming line-by-line my analysis, and interestingly, spontaneously commenting on the value of his contextual scholarship.

having said that, for readers of my earlier and by him unread analysis, it seems to me he fails (along with with the field as a whole) to grasp the fundamental unity offered by the plot. thus i conclude his analysis lacks a plot that empowers a grasp of the The Four Zoas as an aesthetic crafted whole...this aesthetic unity is a critical keystone for all else for me. thus for me he has little methodological certainty to attach the, as he calls it, "archaeology" of The Four Zoas text. i think in terms of the plot, the result is another paradigmatic field failure that for me renders his theory of composition textually deficient. the term archaeology is uncomfortable to me, recalling layers of residuals and remains and the abstracts of reconstruction.

by contrast, as is critically shown in my ('now updated' review of the state of the field) analysis The Four Zoas is no layered 'pit of decayed remnants'; the text is a completed masterpiece..... an epic, a whole.

erdman, lincoln, pierce and rosso place V11a between the two portions of V11b. pierce sees the poem as “opposed to the notion of a time-bound narrative and literary form controlled by sequential verisimilitude”. By contrast my thesis 1984, seemingly unread by them, had detailed this plot before any of these later theorists failed to find one . lefebre and kilgore place V11b in Viia’s two portions. by contrast, i earlier had shown Blake's literary vision, conscious craftsmanship, textual interlacements and plot and narrative 'stereo-textual' purpose in the two nights. The Four Zoas is read as a beautifully crafted epic once the plot is grasped, which in turn depends on the two version of Night the Seventh to be envisioned as being re-written by Blake into simultaneous morphologies, two sides of one 'plot-coin', and Blake's concept of a double fall.

The existence of Blake'slogoi....that which connects all the parts into a whole..... is dismissed in donaldault's methodology, published1986, the second full-scale study, that seems built on his hypothesis that the search for Blake's plot is two-dimensional, and newtonian…perhaps he, more than any, could just claim to set the current methodological paradigm of a plot-less and fractal Blake. however, my study, in fact the first full-scale study, is seen to demonstrate quite other conclusions before he published.

from my retired, down-under perspective, ault seem to me in a sense to have 'replaced' frye as the paradigmatic scholar of his generation. he finds the fall has “no structure or content”, and his study 'incommensurate' with all previous Blake scholarship. I think him wrong on both counts. Blake's cosmology of the fall is shown in this site as highly structured, philosophically rational and rich with spiritual, mythic and poetic content. as shown 1984, there is clear plot, structure and content, peer-reviewed by experts, and judged beyond reasonable doubt to be methodologically unequaled, and critically sound throughout.

otto speculates the two nights are “parallel and contemporaneous' and "entangled with one another”, but, i think (my major study unread by him) he seems unable to see a consciously crafted and organised cosmology or plot, as i do; nor does he seem to provide significant textual support for an unentanglement…..i showed earlier that they are not entangled.

by contrast my 1984 textual analysis of the two Nights gave the textual detail that shows the two Nights were clearly distinct and operated in a dynamic 'stereo-textual' simultaneity, before harmonised in Night the Eighth. it shows Blake's plot reveals a vision of a double fall, a profoundly coherent, serially controlled and rational cosmology, and, what Blake textually defines as his two-fold, three-fold and four-fourfold vision

as significant as the first reconciliation of the Night(s) the Seventh is my analysis and depiction of Blake's asethetic use of the myth of a double fall in The Four Zoas (e.g. boehme). Thus, presented to the field in my analysis, is a first fall into a pythagorean universe ordered and ruled by Urizen and Ahania. this is unsustainable, as lamented by Ahania, and by Enion in her famous speech lamenting the destruction of the second fall. it fell a second time into what is our ruined world (see The Four Zoas Explained Ch VIII). God intervenes to set the two limits, Adam and Satan (for the Finger of God, and negation, see Luke). Los reshapes Urizen in seven days of inverse reduction. this is the world of displaced energies that the twice-fallen and contracted Urizen explores in Night the Sixth.

it is essential to understand Urizen's senses are twice fallen, and twice removed from a true knowledge or intellectual vision of eternity. It is the poetic basis for Blake's two-fold and three-fold geographies and his final four-fold vision. Urizen's perceptions are two dimensional. He travel through the compass points. In fact he travels through the three dimensional co-ordinates of circumference, zenith, nadir and centre, and that three dimensional vision is completed in the four-fold vision of unity with God within and without, through Christ's incarnation.

as described in the closing line of the epic, "sweet science reigns" are the last words in The Four Zoas, for a true intellectual understanding of salvic life in unity with God is attained.

the third phase of Blake's three compositional stages, in particular, are shown to interlace the two Night(s) the Seventh into a single thematic theme prior to the harvest and vintage of Night the Ninth. see Chapter XIII, The Four Zoas, and the detailed analysis of Night the Eight in Chapter XIV; the setting of the Limit of Opacity and Limit of Contraction and the crucifixion and resurrection. The vintage of Luvah and harvest 'Bread of Ages' of Urizenin Night the Ninth are thematically traced thereby to the two Nights the Seventh in Blake's plot.

the restoration of Albion through Christ is enabled through the Divine sacrifice: and 'sweet science reigns'. These hermeneutics are shown to be directly embedded in Blake's three stages of composition, and so reliable, repeatable and valid according to the science of paleographical analysis.

Clearly, I do not think lincoln's view of four plotless stages accurately replaces my research; still the 'plotless' Blake is the critical paradigm that has been out of date since 1984 dominates. like all of the scholars of full-scale studies, he did not seem to know of and so did not take into account the earlier more accurate study of the architecture of Blake's plot. His studies in 1978 are example. He sees no plot. My work was completed then and submitted as draft. The years till the formal granting of the doctorate a few years later were taken up by other factors. my studies, johnson and wilkie, erdman, and lincoln all seemed contemporary.

i think this leaves all efforts on Blake's narrative and plot since 1984 at least, obsolete before published. aultotto pierce rosso and so on.....all share what seems to be the same methodological deficency, namely that there is no plot, and i think all have found unempowered methodological alternatives to support their shared 'plotless' hypothesis.

it is time to put my research before the student, reader and scholar. time for Blake's plots to be known and things to change.

this means now there are many brand new BA, MA and PhD research concepts and fresh hypotheses waiting for a new inspirational generation of seekers of excellence in fresh critical pastures. In terms of Blake's intentional plots in The Four Zoas and Jerusalem, the field needs to be largely re-written....i gave the example of irony....much of Blake's irony here is necessarily largely unseen if the reader/viewer does not know his plot, c.f. sophocle'soedipusrex. if you don't know, see, or can't follow Blake's plot in The Four Zoas or Jerusalem, his intended irony in these two epics, likewise can't be be properly perceived.

my analysis, now in ...www.thefourzoas.com....., is described by my doctorate committee. they wrote the thesis "challenges the greats in the field", and was a "major breakthrough". that is because i traced the plot, till 1984 believed impossible to trace, or follow, and thought to be entirely absent from Blake's implicit and explicit theories of composition. it was also thought to be "eminently worthy of publication". i shifted fields... now i can publish. because it was unread by all further studies (after 1984), the research is the most modern and sophisticated analysis before the reading public

By contrast to the paradigmatic plotless Blake, i show the plots are very quickly absorbed, and can read as one might read homer or virgil, dante, spenser or milton. Blake's plots are wonderful, clear, challenging and precise, ......beautifully precise. The Four Zoas, in particular, i show can be read as clearly as an Agatha Christie plot.

I intend to put in a list of search strings for Blake'sThe Four Zoas and Jerusalem. The search lines 70-80 or so should open up an expansion in research and career possibilities. It is part of the benefits of the web. These search strings bring much to the necessary 'printed press Blake industry'. to me, students need liberation from the obsolete and misleading fractal, plotlessBlake.

further, i think it reasonable to suppose the future field as a whole will be clearer and more textually penetrating and accurate now it can reason from textual proof that Blake’s cosmology, in particular Nights I to VI or Blake’s myth of creation, is not arbitrary but philosophically rational and systematic: namely, as shown for the first time, created in rational sequence are Blake's energy forms for 'being and generation' (Tharmas and Enion), 'time and space' (Los and Enitharmon), 'motion and attraction' (Luvah and Vala), and 'order and (Urizen and Ahania). then there is a second fall. This second fall is into this world and discussed as noted in Chapter VIII, The Four Zoas Explained.

if known earlier, this means, for example, freeman who sees Night the Ninth as the centre of the poem would have been helped by seeing the connected aesthetic whole of the process by which Blake's end is in his beginning, and by Blake's poetic soteriology as revealed by his cosmology, double fall and blake's two, three and four-fold vision. i showed 1984, how Blake created in his conscious, highly crafted. plot through his finite and infinite geography. my analysis, thereby, demonstrates Blake's intentional plot, delineates his myth, reveals his grasp of time and space, unites the Night(s) the Seventh, and embeds his states of vision in the spiritual geography consequent on his vision of a double fall. these structural points are vital to a grasp of his brilliant plot and so to a grasp of the The Four Zoas as a whole.

thus, to review, one of the significant contributions to an understanding of The Four Zoas, first outlined in my 1984 thesis but unread by all further full-scale studies, is Blake's concept of a double fall. his first fall is into a pythogorean/arcadian universe. This is a finite illusion and collapses once more. this time into our universe, bound by the two limits, namely, the Limit or State of Satan and the Limit of State of Adam, and, the two chains, namely the Chain of Time and the Chain of Sorrow. Los reshapes Urizen's perception (into those symbolically of Rueben), in seven days of labour into a perceptually limited twice fallen space/time continuum of our world of the two limits and the two chains. Christ descends into the crucified Luvah, whose energies of finitiude are insufficient to save Albion, there is no self-salvation in Blake....Christ, incarnate, receives the impacted cruelties of the States of Adam and the State of Satan in the crucifixion. Blake christian vision holds an unshakable faith in Christ's sacrifice that redeems Albion from the two limits, the two chains of serial time and finite death.

in review, the vortex of The Four Zoas turns from the fall, Blake's brilliant christian cosmology of division and death, the cessation of the fall by Divine intervention and the Finger of God, the incarnation resurrection, and the consequent purgation and restoration of Albion. Blake traces clearly the re-intergration and cleansing of each zoa and emanation pair in turn and finally, Blake's plot carries us to the harvest and vintage that purge and cleanse life, time and space. Ultimately, the universal man, Albion is re-born into unity with God, and Blake's epic ends for 'sweet science reigns'.

Thus, Albion's interiority is bound by the Limit of Opacity, called the State of Satan, and the Limit of Contraction, called the State of Adam. in the twice-fallen earth of two-fold vision.

we are, for Blake, all bound by two corresponding chains, called the Chain of Time (serial and satanic) and the Chain of Sorrow (generative suffering, sacrifice and death). both chains are shattered when Christ frees Albion from his interior collapse into auto-idolatry, self-predation and death, and so in Blake's plot, all events lead directly to the purgation of the apocalypse, the harvest and vintage and the purging of the two limits, states and chains; the State of Satan is cast out and the State of Adam is infinitely restored.

Blake's vision of unity is given in the final few lines. the last words of The Four Zoas, again, are "sweet science reigns". thus my original findings demonstrate that Blake's intended plot places Night the Ninth as the apocalyptic culmination of his intricately worked out vision of the creation, fall and salvation into unity that is his anglo-celtic prophetic myth of christianity.

also, my detailing of Blake's cosmology of fall division and salvation into unity has helped van kleeck's analysis of the kabbala and the 'psychological cube of space', but, not noted in spector’s detailed but for me often textually speculative perceptions of the kabbala as if it were Blake's consciously chosen 'mystical spine' for the logoi of The Four Zoas. it is as if it were her plot, offered as the narrative solution of the otherwise 'plotless' Blake... the traditions of an Adamic fall into warring division and restoration to unity is common to early christian patristic tradition too. my research 1984, seemingly not known to her on publication, means my completely different line-by-line analysis of Blake's plot and cosmology may not be taken into account. for me the precision and clarity of Blake's consciously unique myth of the cosmic Adam's division into unity and restoration allows mutual enhancements of perception into the kabbala and Blake'... for all myths founded on the Bible will echo and show parallels even if as inversions or parodies, and Blake is capable of brilliant satire and parody.

his vision is of the risen Christ and his poetry written to help illuminate salvic insight into the Bible, thus into New Testament Revelation. the New Testament resurrected messiah is not accomodated as such by later jewish kabbalism. however, Blake was immersed in the tradition of jewish visionary prophecy as shown by rowland's studies of merkabah mysticism in Ezekiel's chariot and Blake's states of vision.

Blake's vision is universal. following bentley's biography, by default at least, Blake was not learned in latin...there are few clear allusions to the kabbalistic tree in his The Four Zoas or Jerusalem, no sinificant biographical mentions in his letters, no known meetings with rabbi for the mystical understandings and training, no kabbalistic patrons and no convincing direct textual support. There is no hollingshed source to a shakespeare's wonderful speech of cleopatra and her 'barge'. this is not to say there are no mutually revealing patterns, nor does it mean Blake did not know of Adam Kadman or the kabbala. Our understanding of Blake's spirituality is significantly enhanced by the insights and parallels in jewish mysticism

rather, i think the logoi for The Four Zoas and Jerusalem is Blake's own myth and plot, not a 'coded' myth or plot typically for elite educated initiates of a highly developed, mystical system such as the kabbala. Blake's psychology and jungian thought are not unlike this; jung saw myth and archetype without knowing Blake's myth but in a manner that is shown now to be mutually illuminating. modern research on buddism likewise finds mutually enhancing parallels and motifs of consciousness; and the bahagavad gita was also translated in Blake's lifetime who knew moor's famous hindu myths.

increasingly, the evidence for the essene sect's vital significance for the messianic, calandar based (Enoch), essene/jewish sect that became the world 'jewish' religion of christianity is that some of its followers were alive and well in anglo-celtic christianity several hundred years well before augustine was invited to britain. Again, it is the case 'chi rho constantine' (the symbol is his badge/emblem/heraldic device) ruled from york for a decade and declared york to be the cradle of christianity...and marched to rome under the banner of english christianity... built a church there too ... obviously there were christian churches in england ...and his (forged) will leaving the roman civil 'throne' to the centre of christianity, rome, was proclaimed as legally valid. It seemed british christianity seriously helped shape the early roman church.

the now 'flat-earth' and distorted historical methodology that christianity 'sprang out fully formed' from the 'forehead' of revelation history is no longer seen as factually supported. there are better ideas (such as fr david coffey's view that the Father became Father when the Son became incarnate as Son and the Holy Spirit released on his death and concommittant resurrection) that are theologically argued in a fully developed pnuematology such as he presents (Grace: the Gift of the Holy Spirit: manley theological press; Sydney 1978).

ault, as noted, sees no structure or content (thus no rational cosmology); to me this was proven critically unacceptable (1984) two years prior to his famous and brilliant post-modernist position on The Four Zoas, (1986) ... as evident in a brief correspondence, his work on the zoas was concurrent and so without knowledge of my earlier, and so in scholarly fact, 'first full-scale study'.

METATEXT 3 the critical state of the field of Jerusalem's plot.

to turn to Jerusalem, yoder's review of the consensus view of a 'plot-less' Jerusalem serves to summarise how he grasps the field in terms of Blake’s Jerusalem…I agree and simply follow him here, thus “Readings of William Blake’s Jerusalem” he writes “have reached a consensus…Critics ranging from Joanne Witke to Morton Paley to to V.A. de Luca to W.J.T. Mitchell all agree that Blake’s last great epic poem has no coherent narrative spanning its 100 plates…….however they explain the structure of the poem, the majority of critics today read the poem with the assumption that its parts do not cohere linearly or chronologically, and that its is 'a fool’s errand' to search for a narrative in Jerusalem”.

dortort's examination, the closest study of parts of the text text to date shares this consensus. in his opening statements of methodology (p 43-44, Contrary Reading) he writes of Jerusalem that “efforts…to unravel the plot in a systematic manner consistently prove unfruitful”...or he writes of... "Jerusalem's contradictory jumble of events" ...or the... "modal interferences in which the minutely detailed setting engulfs any straightforward plot structure" and specifically focuses of what he calls "perspective frames"..."rather than a concern with plot events, characters or themes". Likewise minna doskow insights do not point to Blake's plot. van lieshout and pierce likewise...discontinuity is thought essential to Blake's meaning.

By contrast, the study of Jerusalem in my web-site and now revised in print, is the first full scale virtually line-by-line analysis. I outline the plot, line-by-line and event-by-event in its definitive linear causal unity. To my mind, given the paradigmatic consensus traced above, a detailed revelation of the plot is required to textually prove there is a plot. All future studies of Jerusalem can properly organise a methodology and literary philosophy in which the many aspects of the field are founded on the methodological principle of a consciously crafted plot, narrative completeness, completed and fully developed myth and an inter-locked aesthetic whole.

It is no 'fool's errand' to understand the linear causal narrative, rather it is now a necessary effort. It is important to re-visit frye, bloom, percival and others of the earlier school ...

this is a 'new' Blake for research scholars: Blake the brilliant creator of plot; irony; character; drama; tension; multiple narrative positions and angles of vision organised into unity. this should mean the field now needs be be revised in favour of a considerable methodological enhancement of the analysis of Blake's plots in his two of his major prophecies; namely The Four Zoas and Jerusalem.

critically, I have concluded that this means I must show and detail according to the science of textual criticism the poem's logoi, 'deconstructed' as it were from any pre-conceived critical presumption of an external system other than those he assumed. in order that the analytic methodology i used can demonstrate Blake's desire to construct his own system, i have set out in detail how Blake's linear narrative is integrated throughout his work, just as he claimed. in other words, both of the studies on this site thereby help set Blake within his own syntagmatic, paradigmatic and pragmatic dynamic genius. I concluded therefore, it follows that Blake'slogoi must be shown in scholarly detail so that it is critically shown to relate each part to each other part and to the whole. else the field ofBlake's plot or linear narrative, myth, and therefore aesthetic unity stays unimpowered in critical fractal concrete.

Blake's anglo-celtic christian system, famously his own, has always needed such a comprehensive critical detailing....'incomprehensible' or 'impenetrable' or 'non linear' and the like are conclusions i believe is shown to be textually deficient in both Blake'sThe Four Zoas and in Jerusalem.

though i have not written a third book called Milton Explained, i have analysed it and know Blake'sMilton, likewise has a precise consciously crafted plot that is the logoi, or aesthetic whole of his third prophecy.... i find no existing study is convincing. ....reading Blake's linear narrative is not like moving from the illiad to the odesseus to virgil to dante to milton and the like.... each of Blake's prophecies is uniquely self contained and the game-rules change more radically than in the epic tradition as a whole (the term meta-narrative or meta-text can be introduced here. as a post-modern critical tool term it is appropriate to my use of logoi).

I would like to address Blake's chapter To The Jews a little more. the kabbalistic inner play of energies and balances explored by rowland, spector, van kleeck and others have enriched the field, in particular, because recent archaeology has proven the historical influences of the british metal trade centuries prior before NT events. this raises the possibilities of messianic, essenejudaism via tin trading prior to the crucifixion through at least joseph of arimathea. there is extensive documentation of this and several hypotheses. to begin with joseph of arimathea was a disciple of Christ (matt 27:5; john 19:38), and that means a great deal in in terms of apostolic continuity; implications of this are beyond the remit of my analysis of Blake's Jerusalem. however it is essential to know that it does not matter if Joseph did not bring christianity with him to britain...that christianity WAS in britain and florished... is shown to be beyond question. It was not a slave though...the british christians included royalty from the beginning. and constantine was one of the most famous of british 'christians' though not born in britain.

However, it is important to raise a point here. If tacitus and gildius are to be reasoned from historically then, joseph or no joseph (and Guildas does NOT mention joseph)... it may be the case that the denial of jewish christianity in Britain immediately after the crucifixion events echoes the anti-semitic denial of the jews by european christianity. That means that early jewish christianity in britain preceded the roman invasion. if this is historical truth and known as such (tacitus knew it) to deny it seems anti-semetic, not 'just' anglo-phobic, though the two seemed yoked together. This is not to claim rome is not the centre of a single christian church. On the contrary it is to assert precisely that. Rome replaced Jerusalem as the centre...not as the west...it was then and remains so, even with what many see as the apparent current 'demonisation' of Vatican II by recidivist medievalism.

thus, there is continuous exciting research enriching our knowledge on the jewish/celtic archaeology of the pre-roman britain and ireland, and, the early post-conquest development of messianic essene christianity on the celtic west. for example, tacitus (Annales, xiii. 32) famously mentions the "foreign superstition" of christianity... which therefore must have been in britain before 47 AD, because the native christian british wife of the general left with him, before 47 AD, after he conquered southern britain.......gildas (see below) directly asserts that christianity came in the rule of Tiberius. No need for joseph...Augustine wrote of a visit by Jesus and the church built here, convincingly in term of the indigenous architecture of oak, wattle and thatch. such building last for centuries. the town called ONGAR in essex has the oldest wooden church in europe...built a couple of centuries before the norman/roman conquest, around 800 ce, and the post-norman elimination of most saxon 'christian' or baptised names. the earliest known irish church was around 740 ce...hundreds of years after 'england's' early churches.

tacitus mentions the trial of a woman called pomponia graecina, wife of the general aulus plautius, conquerer of southern britain 43-47 A.D. and who was granted a senate ovation. in rome, however, she was "handed over to her husband for trial" for this "foreign superstition" . he found her innocent and she 'retired'. i think it unlikely that roman soldiers were prosletizing christian jews in 43 A.D. ... membership of this excluded essene/jewish sect by 'christian jewish' legionaries may likely have been persecuted, for as later, some 'christian jews' were killed for roman spectacle...

For Blake any form of human sacrifice/cleansing is pseudo-faith...whether, for examples, in 'pagan' rome or 'pagan' carthage, or post-resurrection recividistic sacrifice/purification 'theologies'. .following fr coffey, blood and gold are not acceptable substitutes for the eucharistic substance of bread and wine, but is recidivism.

Blake's certainly conflates druidism and the mediterranean sacrifice cults. in his myth these cults are nature worship and exemplars of the perversion of child and adult sacrifice he symbolises as following Albion's fall. Now we know the druids did not sacrifice humanity in the indigenous stone circles as Blake and his contemporaries thought.

Historically, the druids they came later than the circle builders....some 1500-2000 or so years after the circle/indigenous faiths... however, the principle of sacrificial perversion for Blake remains historically true, as are his views of all religious and economic killing.

Christ's sacrifice is for Blake unsurpassed, unique, and perfectly exhausts all sacrifice. Blake is completely committed to believing our life and death as always and infinitely in the arms of Christ without and Christ within (c.f. John of the Cross and the 'descending Christ, coffey, stanilaoe, kuhn, rahner, barth, schliemacher, mayendorff et al). Blake's self-belief in his aesthetic vision inspires his symbol of Christ awakening Albion from his sleep of eternal death. The magnificant Plates 94-100 of Jerusalem 'chant out' Blake's poetic soteriology and his aesthetics of prophecy. As prophet he believes he sees what others do not and reveals through art that which is profoundly salvic. Restorative of faith in the human form Divine Blake sees his art as healing.

BLAKE'S ANGLO-CELTIC CHRISTIANITY

It is essential to consider the archaeology of Blake's anglo-celtic mythology. I make ten points below.

First...archeologically, it seems for at least two millenia before the Roman conquest, much of the estimated 30 million tons of tin mined and exported (with copper, gold, lead and bronze) from cornwall, wales, ireland, and the east coast (kent and norfolk and the humber) was exported, along with serious exports of bronze weaponry, in an extensive very profitable trade with the continent and mediterranean. From britain sailedocean going flat-bottomed sewn boats dated circa 4500 years ago (dover with reconstruction, humber, scotland).

Second... this steady continental trade should be linked with the likely later arrival of phoenicians circa 1000-1800 bc, the celts from the basque and breton lands 800-600 bc. The Dover reconstruction and shows the actual technology for the known paddled flat-bottomed boats and trade routes, 'without sail or oars'. by contrast, mediterranean tideless oar/sail boat designs could not easily cope with the atlantic swells, thus leaving the phoenicians with a transport competitive advantage for marine metal imports from britain over the channel to the continent. the thousands of apparent 'sea-offerings' items found in gibraltar testifiy sewn boats and were used as noted by the romans as trading in the indian oceans to the fears of the open swells. the sewn boats are noted in india, and, by roman history.... in particular because they were NOT made with 'iron nails'.... and so the iron nailed roman boats were a new post-neolithic, metal, marine naval archetectural development. the mass production of iron-pinned ships replaced sewn marine bindings.

Third... techology has revolutionised history, and fresh archaeology and recent DNA studies (sykes, goldstein 2003, 2005) has re-written british and irish history ….it is shown that 21st century britain and ireland are genetically homogenous with well over 50% of the population celtic, then saxon, viking some norman french and with very little roman (Sykes lists the Oisin, Wodan, Sigurd, Eshu, Re as the several immigrant tribes, till the norman invasion, or western crusade) .......... Thus, for archeological and genetic science, the myth of the anglo-saxon destruction of celtic 'proto-papal britain' in a 'pagan dark ages' is being archeologically 'buried' in post-roman britain. romanocentric history fails the tests of archaeology without deconstruction.

Fourth...contemporary archeology clear evidences that it seems, in context, a highly literate, largely prosperous, peaceful and substantially christianisedbritain (namely, today, what is called england, wales and scotland and much of ireland, c.f. Gildas the Wise c.505-570, though some date him a generation earlier, c.425-512), welcomed augustine.

Fifth... obviously concurrent saxon nature worship was likewise extensive. the welcome both by the celtic christian and the saxons soon ended even in augustine's lifetime, for in contemporary documentation, he seemed too autocratic to the british bishops, especially in the need to consult congregations. however, he wrote well to gregory of the existing christian community and the early church in the then port of glastonbury connecting it with Jesus. It is also significant to note genetic research reveals Kent NOT to be largely saxon at all.

Sixth... thus, centuries of direct contact with main land europe, rome and byzantium after the fall of rome 410, seems to have infused the bishops of britain, who it seems at first decided to accept/convert augustine's position, or gregory's papal claims. These were accommodated rather than the post-resurrection collegiate model of first-amongst-equals bishops as in orthodox christianity... and by and large i think in much post-reformation protestant/anglicanchristianity. thus, it seems those who contend there is a continuum between christian pre-augustinian britain, and, post-reformation britain, of the first-among-equals autocephalous theology of the Vicar of Christ, Vicar of Peter and Bishop of Rome may not be accurate........ for anglo-celtic and catholic christianity was well developed in britain....

Seventh...the mediterranean roman empire was conquered by islam...perhaps the first reformation. thus, after centuries of pre-augustinian jewish/anglo-celtic christianity in britain (it seems constantine ruled from york for a decade or so, declaring also york to be the cradle of christianity), the idea of the rule of the pope became british, extending to absorb the already partly christianised ireland, until the reformation.

the famous history of Gildas the Wise (sapiens) incontestably shows a detailed and sociologically comprehensive and highly structured christianisation of the british islands including non-roman scotland and ireland...he also shows a profound knowledge of messianic prophecy and both Old and New Testaments, the geography and global trade of the post-roman germanic world including india, the arian heresy, the world as 'round', he even had a water clock.

Gildas the Wise writes from strathclyde, as noted, he lived circa 507-570, perhaps decades earlier....the roman legions never reached strathclyde yet he writes of arabia, india and is deeply literate in Old and New Testaments, is well informed of the jewish histories of israel and judea, and their symbolic, spiritual interpretations.

such geographical and theological literacy is inconsistant with any 'dark ages' theory of the times, and incompatible with the theory gregory knew not of britain when he met two self-named 'anglo' children in a roman slave market. the term 'angles' is also interesting...it seems there was literally no country of 'angles'....bede's word....for gildas the wise they were saxons.....so ......angles are clearly identified as long ago as early last century...( by scholars such as w.f. skene Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland) as being Fresian and in Northumberland.

Eighth.....it seems to many therefore that it is no longer theologically (in terms of revelation history) or archeologically reasonable to claim there was no organised and developed christian church in britain till augustine. scholars in the field have agreed the venerable bede is not always an accurate observer of the tale of early anglo-celtic christianity. why should he be? i found many sources detailing early anglo-celtic christian britain before augustine, in clear and easily accessible testaments like Gildas the Wise (as noted),.... and neninus and bede note king lucius and the edict of winchester 156 a.d. ...declaring christianity to be the british religion.

hippolytus notes simon zelotes as bishop of britain..... then there is constantine..... and in the 8th Cent i return to the anglo-saxon chronicles and the interesting Neninus.....who clearly can't be dismissed nor, with his wonderfully fluent legendary tales such as st patrick's myth...raising nine from the dead, or writing 364 books and founding 364 religious centres, all seen as literally 'true'... as with gildas and bede...(or for that matter, homer the greek tragedians and vergil and so on) the implicit and explicit sociology, urbanisation and cemtres of learning are embedded in their text is vital. they write what is seen as a mythic shadow across our visions of history.

as i see it, it is impossible in the 21st cent that these, and other statements of pre-augustinian britain as a developed christian country, are not known to the other christian sects or churches. it seems to me theologically speaking, such evidence should be welcomed by all sects of the christian church... western christianity literally meant the west...always the tin islands ....rome was not symbolically the 'west' ...it was the centre....at least of the mediterranean world. rome is not a one-legged or even two-legged stool...all 'roads led to rome' at the centre of the known world, not to the the far distant wealthy tin islands of the west...

thus the jewish/christians were drawn to rome at the centre, .....there was also the north, south, east and the west.... there was byzantium in the east, egypt in the south and eventually romania and russia in the north, but rome was always the centre, and confirmed as such 380 a.d. by constantinople........ironically one might ask where is there a tradition of 'go west young jewish christian man?...go to rome' ?......did peter or paul set out west for rome?...'go west young man there's gold in them there seven hills' is not a proverbial saying...'all roads lead to rome', by contrast, is.

Ninth...early in western christianity, St Cadval of western/british christianity founded the monastic Tatentum church in France 170 a.d.; Simon Zelotes, the martyr, is reconised by orthodox christianity (May 10th a.d. 44); then there are the english and welsh saints; Bede notes King Lucius and the edict of winchester (150 a.d.) ; St Patrick; the four councils of Pisa (1409), Constance (1417), Sienna,(1424) and Basle (1434) recognised the british christian church as senior (as did Cardinal Pole in Queen Mary's reign), and the Bishops of London, York and Colchester attended the Council of Churches 314 a.d.

archeological discoveries seem to be about 350 a.d. onwards. we have known about some for years and so i introduce EARLY archaeology to show how long the denial has been current. it is 30 or 40 years of lobotomised history.

....one ruin found 2007 is dated 200-250 a.d. the buildings include a church at Colchester, 350-400 a.d; at Silchester there is a baptismal font same age, likewise in Richborough there are two christian buildings, one of timber the other of stone; Icklingham c.350 a.d., has a bapistry and christian symbols that define its christian purpose; Hinton St Mary possibly the oldest mosiac face of Christ, and, Halcock; Smith 1964, Toynbee 1968, 1976 discussed and mapped, 1953 with Frend 1955, Thomas 1971, Radford 1971, Mann 1961, Green 1977, Rahtz 1977,78, Thomas 1980, Walter& Phillips 1979, Jenkins 1973 1976, Thomas 1980, West & Plovier 1976, Prigg 1901, Green 1977, and Britannia 8 1977, Brown 1971 all deal with romano christian buildings..... thereby these scholars have hugely suplemented the small corpus of written references to bishops/sees, travels of church-folks, sites of martydoms, and to controversies like the arian heresy ) , Hinton St Mary has mosaics with the Chi Rho criptogram, as has the 3rd cent ruins at Cirencester. precious objects include the Hoxne treasure hoard in Suffolk about 15,000 coins (gold, mostly silver and copper), with date stamps on the coins from 390-405 a.d. in addition to the dated coins, the treasure has several objects with the Chi Rho criptogram and a spoon with 'vivas in deo' inscribed on it; in Water Newton there is the oldest set of church plates yet found anywhere, a Chi Rho chalice, a wine carafe, and a bowl with 'O Lord, I, Publianus relying on you, honour your holy sanctuary', the objects date from the early 4th century; the Middenhaul treasure c. 400 a.d. has three Chi Rho spoons and Lullingstone in Kent has a large Chi Rho image. that is some of the evidence....only one has to be christian fact. I also note these are amongst the very oldest ruins of architecturally specific christian churches in the 'mediterranean east' or in greece or in imperial italy. there are many sites in roman ruins though not proved to be site specific christian churches: i list some of these sites excavated decades ago to make the point; namely, Barton Farm, Brading, Caerwent, Chedworth, Fifehead, Flaxenhead, , Framtom, Halstock, Hinton St Mary, Hawkstow, Keysham, Littlecote Park, Neville, Newton St Loe, Northchurch, Pitney, Stonesfield, Verulanium, Wellow, Witherston, Woodchester all with Christian or potentially crypto-Christian art at roman villas.

Tenth...it is argued the title 'pope' is informal…..in terms of titles, some collegiate christians see the title of Vicar of Peter as theologically correct, and it seems to that theology the Vicar of Peter/Bishop of Rome is the most profoundly possible human relation to Christ (for example see john meyendorff 's discussion of a.d. autocephaly in 'the primacy of peter' vladimirs press 92). Vatican II sees him as the Vicar of Christ, in the context of the Vicar of Peter in Christ, to thereby properly avoid implications of a re-incarnated human 'ensouled' during a person's already existent life. following fr david coffey's trinitarian dogma, (sydney , school of divinity) it is impossible that the Trinity be reduced to a human reincarnated quasi-god, 'entering/shoehorned' sometime after birth into another person. .........rather, it is this recidivist/shamanistic nature-spirit 'deficient' idea of god that is recognised as some form of possession in major world religions, e.g. judaism, islam, and, in the re-incarnation theologies of hinduism and buddhism. ..................the pontif, pontifex maximus is simply a pagan title. babylonian/roman in pre-christian origins....ceasar was number one pontiff....nero...caligula are examples of other holders of the title......and the huge income from controlling all roman religions and their ceremonies...

......islam conquered out the financial and civil absolute power of mediterranean christianity and the powers of the pontifex maximus ....it was the basque celts/saxons of iberia and the saxon celts of north west europe that held on....we have the germanic translation of the gospels noted about 400-500 ce by Ufilas.......

it is also written that peter was married and lay. for theiring, the 'rock' (aramaic cephas; latin petra) can be read as the rock of the 'stones', the 'stones' and 'wall' are known to be pesharim (written comments in the dead sea scrolls that are essene interpretations of quoted prophetic texts) for the lay members of the congregation; 'bread' being livites. thus the famous 'stones and bread' passage in the gospels is illuminated. for her, the 'rock' that is the appointed 'head' of Christ's 'church' of the 'stones' is intentionally lay and married (4QpIsa 'd', 4Q 164). theiring reads Isa: 11-12, as:

"on the precious stones of the temple, on terms of its leaders. All priests, levites and celibates were precious stones, as if in some sense they were priestly. . . John said that "stones" could be made into sons of Abraham . . . .as ordinary "stones" they formed a "wall" around the New Jerusalem, and those . . . members were called "Wall-builders" (bone hahayis, CD 4:12, 8:12)". (theiring's paleography and hermeneutics are found in 'the gospels and qumran', australian and new zealand studies in theology and religion, 1981).

SOME CONCLUSIONS

In conclusion...thus, now archaeology has opened out the 4500 years or so in which the british isles seemed to have been the manufacturing centre for metals for the mediterranean/european civilisations (bury st edmunds has thousands of bronze age items, with significant weaponry circa 1500 bc, and kent was a manufacturing bronze centre). It seems that well before jerusalem, athens or rome were customers, britain was a main metals manufacturer for mainland/medditerranean europe.... even egypt. a shipwreck with tons of tin ingots on the way to egypt is a current marine archeological find. the source of the tin ingots would be interesting. operating during OT times, large forges within a many roomed complex (90 or so) has been found in jordan. the source of the metal for that regional industry again opens out very significant research possibilities of bronze and iron age contact with britain. likewise the manufacturing sources of the copper weaponry of troy.

also there are the thousands of archaeological items, such as wine amphora's, that evidence a continuous mutual trade between byzantium and britain throughout the alledged but not so 'dark' ages. to add to the evidence in another example, land deeds in britain were written in latin (earliest surviving manuscript around 650 AD, papyrus decays in britain's dampness). it follows from this the antecedent legal/religious profession thus continued to teach and learn classical latin in a british culture in which academic institutions for the formal study of latin were across the legal landscape had operated for centuries....... land-deeds and property rights in latin were self-accepted by the people........ in latin, which means legal arguments in courts, christian churches, legal property judgements, a system of enforced laws of inheritance observed and recorded across britain's anglo/saxon/celtic culture. laws in latin that were enforced in latin by a graduand group of highly literate and logic trained specialists and so on....by comparison roman culture was reduced to 12-20000 people and little evidence of a florishing written culture as in britain (beowulf, the ulster cycle, the welsh poets and histories).

so, the departure of the legions did not plunge britain into darkness and savagery. for further proof we have the saxon/latin word games recently revealed by the professor of latin at oxford on the History Channel, in which the saxon reads one way, and is a latin epigraph/witticism when the letters are written out and read backwards. examples of such carved linguistic brilliance are up and down the country. he points out anglo-celtic britain preserved classical latin after rome collapsed. julius caesar (the first pontif/pontifex maximus...it being a pagan babylonian god-priest nature/power human/divine) notes the high state of civilisation, tacitus, josephus all write of the many cities in britain with centres of learning too as does Gildas.

further, there is no archaeological evidence for the alledged 'dark age' centuries of barbarism, anarchy, civil war, invasions, battleground graveyards, battle-sites burnings and the like in britain ....on the contrary, archeological finds in yorkshire prove throughout the centuries that architecture with oak and with thatch roofs continued to be built, with extended villages stretching for miles and miles along rich transport roads. It takes 4-8 acres of cultivated land-reed to roof a thatched building. no string of thatched cottages and necessary agriculture would survive long in a dangerous civil war culture....we lived in a ancient thatched cottage in essex for many years (oak lasts for centuries, so, in a land of oak why bother much with stone?) and i can't imagine defending it against a kid with a zippo let alone plundering/rapist/barbaric venerable bede type anglo/saxon/vikings..... burning the miles of cottages is the first thing that raider or even a vengeful neighbour would do. this society was not so lawless as sectarian recidivism seems to hold as true. it had the best most efficient tax system in europe....a rich prize for the western crusade of the norman french, that de facto established the absoluteism of the papacy upon the anglo/saxon/celtic bishops. the doomday book notes the tax-free thousand year old holding of 'hides' of land in cornwall. myth has it this the land was given by King Aviragus to the post-crucifixion, jewish/christian landing of joseph and his '12 followers'..... glastonbury was a port in those days. the idea of a thousand years of legal continuites in the holding of land is extremely significant. there are few such millenium long historical continuites of legality anywhere else. it is impossible that there be a dark ages that preserved such legally literate continuities.

by contrast, following archeological findings, the roman villas depended on a slavery complex of ruled and absolute ruler….which pretty much ended in roman form for lack of enforcement when the roman army went home, and the anglo-celtic political system of the ruler ruling with the consent of the ruled re-emerged. which, perhaps, is why the villa's were abandoned, for the slaves maintaining the villas need guards and all need food and their are other ways to wash. The numerous excavations of villas do not have a burned layer ending occupation. they are abandoned, rather than being looted and burned.

this is not to say there were no wars, raids, vendatta's, or surfs, or hengist, horsa or saxon/viking pagan nature worship...... but slaves had rights in the viking cultures, such as children who were free and accountability for cruelty or murder. It is to agree with the archeologists evidence that there was no 'dark ages' either in the millenia of indigenous religions, or in early anglo-celtic british christianity. the defensive social landscapes of fortress dwellings, hilltop towns and the like seem not to have been so necessary as in italy, greece and so on. the myth of british christianity commencing with henry's divorce is well known to be proven, theologically and historically, as invalid. indeed it is distortion....divorces for reasons of state is common place...for examples the house of monaco.

Blake's vision of Canaan in Jerusalem is vital to understanding his myth of Jerusalem. in context of Blake's chapter To the Jews, the necessary critical basis is that the story of joseph of arimathea, supplier of tin to the roman army and so vastly rich, isessential to the context of Blake’s vision of the new jerusalem.

THE ARIMATHEA MYTH AND BLAKE

joseph was wealthy,in fact, in legendary context he was up there with the ' meta-rich' of the age. of course he sailed to britain, vital commercial interests required it.......over and again....for him it would be like bill gates 'commuting to visit silicon valley'. in this vein, the dead sea scrolls has much to reveal giving contemporary context to modern theories of the essene messianic christian origins, especially by contributing to the history of essene/messianic culture. i feel it seems reasonable to consider the messianic/essene/judaism antecedent contacts preceding the crucifixion. and the money of the tin trade, helped accomodate christian revelation very quickly (c.f. tacitus) before the roman invasion) and, of course long before augustine, who only came because he was invited.

Consider tacitus and the christian queen...and augustine and the christian queen...it seems the christian jews in anglo-celtic britain were amongst the ruling class... appropriately given joseph's wealth...rather than the slave/unfree class of customary roman conversion appeal. the paleo-christian congregation of the catacombs may not be all of the story.

joseph of arimathea is mentioned in Blake's anglo-celtic revelation myth ..he is a well known example of the ancient tradition of trading tin... from well before the crucifixion in Gildas...in the reign of Tiberius...Theiring suggests Joseph of Arimithea was a title and like an modern styled ambassador that represents the ruler of any given nation...so n'someone' was THE Joseph and t6he emissary to the tin was also a Joseph.

also intricately woven into the extradinary tale of joseph wis that he wa member of the sanhedrin and so learned in all aspects of the torah...and recipient of the passing on by hand of the ancient jewish priestood...and hugely huge wealth.

and there is pilate's bribe...suddenly available...so joseph had huge liquid resources...here is a striking thought ...i think perhaps the pecher of the spices is that it is the famous bribe itself...in other terms, the bribe was the great weight of precious spices named in the New Testament...of massive value far more valuable than gold...and about the weight of a man...(that's a thought if it was the 'weight' of the crucified victim)...after such bribing by joseph, i would think a speedy escape to safety by him from herod, 'anti-jesus-jerusalem' or 'anti-jesus-essene qumran priests, or the fragmented zealot cultism of the 'figtree' ....in short escape from revenge by any or all the political enemies of Christ, is very reasonable.......

for joseph...and for some of Christ's circle, aside from the sea, continuing to travel to britain via gaul or iberian peninsula would mean simply following the overland tin route...well documented as a donkey train (...and continuing to supply the roman army with its tin as Nobilis Decurion (c.f. St Jerome).

...Joseph seems was Pilate's well known aquaintance, and even at that time it seems he need not fear Rome. Trade as soon as possible after the crucifixion seems to me financially and politically realistic. The famous doomday book record of land grants is not inconsistent, nor are the later roman records of british/roman senate dialogue.

THE PALEOGRAPHY OF THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS...SOME THOUGHTS ON QUMRAN AND JEWISH MESSIANIC INFLUENCES

i was fortunate to study the scrolls while studying at sydney university's school of divinity.....barbara theiring taught me hebrew there and the paleography of the scrolls and the pesher tradition of readings of hebrew. it seems to me the details of her paleographic studies have been somewhat overlooked, in particular, her detailed paleographical study of the field structured largely by the brilliant f.w. cross.

in her book 'Re-dating of the Teacher of Rightousness' (australian and new zealand studies in theology and religion 1979) especially Chapters 1-4, her detailed paleographic examination suggests re-dating. a clear example is on p. 42..... 'the evolution of the medial mem': fig 2; in IQS, IQH, 4QQoh(a) and her study of late herodian semi-cursives, and palmyrene and hasmonian script in other letters....here nun, samekh, 'ayn, pe, sade, qof, shin, taw, tet and then (a few pages earlier and later, back through the hebrew alphabet), is convincing and it seems NOT picked up by other paleographers.

the pesher of Hab 2:15 found in IQpHab is especially important as it deals with the "Wicked Priest" and the "Teacher of Righteousness" in the "Period of the Feast of Rest, the Day of Atonement", and the wicked priest "manifested himself" (heb. 'hopia' or 'shone forth' as the light of the "Day of Atonement" or claimed holiness.

theiring's paleography examines hasmonean herodian and palmyrene forms; the semi-cursive script in relation to hasmonean, herodian and the palmyrene forms means for her "that there is no unshakeable paleographical evidence that the Teacher of Righteousness was in the Hasmonean period", (theiring; 'redating the teacher of righteousness; p.47 see also chapter 1 for paleographical dating). In other terms the dating may be much later, up to 50 c.e. as is shown by a stone script of that date. This finding seems to have been missed. Its implications are paleologically profound.

she argues the textual hermaneutics of this re-dating must thereby NOT exclude the possibility of the two figures living in the first half of the first century c.e. ...the opening up of history here seems to me not sufficiently explored or even answered by other paleographers, for the palmyrene script is found in jerusalem AD 50.

There must therefore be a renewed search for the identities of these two spiritual giants called the Messiah of Aaron and the Messiah of Israel?.... both were somehow 'entitled' to enter the qumran holy of holies on Atonement Day. qumran was a 'New Jerusalem' for the essenes, and these two religious giants were contemporary figures. they were not prior to the community. To the essene 'plant root' of qumran should be added the religious communities of mar sada and in the now ruins of ain feshka on the Dead Sea.

THE ESSENE CALENDAR

I have read no better analysis of the essene calandar than theiring exhaustive evaluation of the solar, lunar and solar-lunar calandars of the north and the south of judea and israel. the history of intercalations she traces is exceptional and it seems overlooked. From these astronomical details we see the linear concepts of the divinity of time. Christ then is the fulfilment of time. Her work on the contemporary calandar is a major contribution.

qumran i think is brilliantly conceptualised by theiring to be a clock with human movements...as shown in the scrolls, they are called watches, with 30 representatives of each of the twelve tribes (again, the 30 pieces of silver being seen by her as the pesher for 'temple tributes'...with variations, one tribute for each day from each 'tribe', in monthly succession staying at qumran). as shown in the scrolls these individuals acted out the sacred movements of the divine expression of God. time is holy, the knowledge of it sacred and predictive, and movement expressing it also sacred. It would seem the movement is one cubit per unit time. Knowledge of time and place then seems to be the basis for teaching and learning. amongst other things, and for many reasons, the crucifixion change the idea of god as time.

some of the contemporary historical politics are more clearly linked by her to involve the treasury as usurped by judas and the 'thieves' (pesher=zealots) and the 'figtree' (pesher=zealot organisation as opposed to the peace movement , pesher= the vine) hence Christ cursed the 'figtree' (Mathew)...he was to be betrayed by the figtree and its thieves.

the wealth of qumran is everywhere in the story of Christ's betrayal by the 'thieves' of the 'figtree'......... the copper scroll lists at least 18 points where treasure was buried in and around qumran by the zealot 'monks' there, control of which seemed to be his goal. in modern weights some 25 tons of gold and silver are mentioned. The wealth of the herodian renovated temple in Jerusalem is noted by the destruction, looting and enslavement by Rome.

TIME AND BRITAIN

archeology shows for millenia the 'indigenous' henge people (the beaker people, and later the druid pre-roman culture and finally the celtic/anglo/saxon inheritors) had developed a traditon of of measurement of time that was profound. guildas even mentions a water clock, aside from mentioning the chair of peter, eucharist, trinity, bishops, priests, pastors clerks 'living in the houses of the church' , 'arian treason' and pseudo-priests, extensive understandings of Biblical prophecy and an in context extra-ordinary theological profound apocalyptic grasp of both Old and New Testaments....which is consistent with essene messianic christianity....but he does not mention the 'angles'.

the henges are shown to be cosmic clocks.....(e.g. see rudgely 'lost civilisations of the stone age; dames, 'the silbury theasure: wood sun, moon and standing stones). I think the mutuality of respect between cultures who understand the heavens and time and the oceans, and most of all share profit navigation and through sea-trade, helps eliminate ideas of barbarism fairly quickly.

in the east over time, vespasian's slaughter of jews, the 'figtree' of masada (essene scripts on masada), and the taking of jerusalem's temple, gold, and jewish slaves is well-documented. in the west, in britain, the impact of roman enslavement was such the word welsh itself meant 'slave' in saxon. the great earthen forts of britain were death traps before the roman catapult and the fire-balls lobbed in to burn the timber structure, and the roman tacticians had learned from caesar's strategies in gaul how to defeat the northern european massed charge. eventually, 3-4 centuries later, this was reversed and rome was defeated.

BLAKE'S MYTH

Blake looked prior to the Roman invasion as best he could. Many elements are woven into the fabric of his myth. I have found The Four Zoas and Jerusalem to be beautifully constructed aesthetic wholes. Once the myth, including blake's ideas of anglo-celtic christianity, is understood the epics read easily and fluently. Blake's challenge is also of course to the visual imagination. that is outside my remit of the plot ....

in contrast to my critical conclusions on blake's plot and myth, i do not deal with Blake's visual expression. i recommend others for examples, ault, bentley, erdman, viscomi, are part of a tradition of work on blake's 'visual signification' and textual findings that is outstanding. bentley's textual studies seem to me to be invaluable and his biography essential.

thereby, brought up to date in terms of the state of the field, the analysis of Blake's plot in The Four Zoas, the first full-scale study of the poem, remains as original and fresh to the field as in 1984. It will be published in print next year by The William Blake Press: Cambridge.

the analysis of Jerusalem's plot, 2005, is the first full-scale line-by-line analysis and likewise is entirely fresh to the field.it is published in print in William Blake's Jerusalem Explained: The William Blake Press: Cambridge; 2007. Amazon. USA and Amazon.com list it for the Blake reader.

Tuesday, 24 April 2007

METATEXT 1 IntroEdit Poststhe focus of this blog is Blake's vision. it is personal but educated ongoing component of the web site..... www.thefourzoas.com...... and so is part of its content. somewhat like appendices or footnotes unfrozen by print and interactive. it is thus under copyright and no portion or whole can be re-produced by any medium without specific specific reference to www.thefourzoas.com....and the author.

i'm a little disappointed in the current 'Blake industry' disconnect with Blake's mythology and its 'ring barking' of the poet who made his own system, by a paradigmatic bonding of critics who freely agree that all have failed to find a plot.

Blake's clear, coherent system is worked out in precise detail and argued directly from the text, is explained clearly in the web site. though tiny because the field is so specialised, the site usually ranks on page one Google from many search lines, and at this point the site recieves 80-100 odd visitors per day.......... to these site visitors and to research committed students looking for dissertation contributions in particular, then, this is my major aim: namely; to watershed the last 20 odd years of the 'plotless/fractal/de-mythologized Blake' and revise as unacceptable his 'sublime incomprehensibility'.

By contrast to paradigmatic consensus on there being no plot, my site in fact traces the plots of both The Four Zoas and of Jerusalem, both for the first time. it is no longer critically plausible to deny the genius of Blake's epic completed masterpieces of plot, narrative coherence, mythological completion and consciously crafted aesthetic unity.

the rules of the Blake's myth are analogous to those of a good computer game; as complex but also as accessible and universally readable....there are no short cuts; the names, powers, icons of impact, rules of movement, dimensional and non-dimensional forces universes all have to be learned, and though it takes work its not hard.

with such learning comes the immersion into Blake's imaginative multi-dimensional 'mythic game' universe and finally the work can be grasped as an aesthetic whole . in its entirety it is a giant of a read, but if you at times like homer, vergil, eliot, shakespeare and and their few kin it is well worth learning the myth and the rules. The Four Zoas I like most because of dramatic poetry, that's personal taste. Jerusalem too has the poetry, and it is the case that both are shown to have beautifully constructed plots. they are dynamic....Blake worked them out over years. my analysis shows the architecture of Blake's editing, for examples, i show how his additions, deletions, structural organistions and mythic clarifications are textually expressed. all are thereby shown to be grounded rationally in an internally consistent and fully developed myth.

Blake's cosmic 'game' is profoundly spiritual. Its component energies, agents and dramatic persona are created and interlaced into clearly visualised vortices. infused by divine energy, that is creation to Blake for he believed that his art is inspired by divine consciousness. Blake's self-belief in his prophetic genius meant for him that the reader's imaginative possibilities for receiving prophetic revelation are thereby empowered. so, he believed as his prophetic myth becomes more clear, and more understood, some reader/viewers will ultimately, enter and be expanded and involved in enhanced salvic, intellectual and spiritually profound aesthetic experiences. he called this aesthetic, universal potentiality the Poetic Genius, and its spiritual archetecture created the city of Golgonooza. the whole of the myth is all its multi-dimensional unity of consciousness is his mythic insight into the revelation of the Bible.

in this site, it is shown that Blake's genius with plot and myth construction is such that he is able to give us a original mythic insight into prophetic aesthetics. linked into clarity by causal coherence and plot, his epics are densely filled with powerful dramatic presences, wonderful passages of dialogue and circumstance, and the morphologies of life and death and re-birth in the arms of Christ. for Blake, genius is prophetic. inspired to envision that which others cannot, he believed his prophetic expression and inspired art to be transformational. seen through the genius of his plot, Blake can be grasped as an aesthetic whole. his anglo-celtic mythic detail re-considers duration, time and space, and salvation from its finitude and its life of generation, mutual predation and individual certainty of suffering and death in the light of the risen Christ.

There have been less than a dozen full-on attempts to work out The Four Zoas. they are all huge efforts and called 'labours of love'. there is truth in the term for the work is like the 'everest' of textual criticism. however, no attempt other than my thesis has successfully outlined Blake's plot. In collective contrast to my critical position, all other critics agree between themselves that because they could not find a plot, therefore there is no plot. and as the reviews of the field here demonstrate, there is now paradigmatic consensus bonding. (Meta-text 4)

By contrast, my thesis research DOES give a successful virtually line by line analysis, and therefore in methodologically exacting detail, proves the conscious craftsmanship of Blake's plot with relentless accuracy and detail.

This line-by-line detail i think is necessary to outline beyond reasonable doubt the plots of Blake's works. The reader can make their own mind up. Once Blake's myth is understood, his epics reads fluently and easily. My doctoral committee questioned whether it was possible to write a PhD thesis on a major figure without footnotes throughout the analysis per se. they agreed the thesis was original throughout. The Professors Emeritus Frederick Cogswell (d) the leading Canadian poet and critic and Professor Emeritus David Galloway (d), the leading Shakespearian textual critic, for example he was chairman of the 450 yr Shakespeare conference at UBC, helped supervise. In recommendating publication, they agreed the thesis 'challenged the views of greats in the field' and described it as 'brilliant', a 'remarkable contribution to Blake scholarship' and a 'major breakthrough in Blake scholarship eminently deserving of publication'.

so it is worth reading, whatever the individual scholar's resting place for plotless fractal critical laurels. Jerusalem is 20 odd years of scholarship further down the line, and is that much richer because of it. I am disappointed that in twenty years it seems none checked the Canadian national library, Ottawa, where the doctoral thesis sat waiting, like the rest, for research scholars, and professional scholars, to check completed doctorates ...... before having a go themselves. in terms of Blake's plot and aesthetic unity inThe Four Zoas, they could have saved themselves and most of all their students, years of unsuccessful conclusions when the solutions were right there.

Brilliant in many other ways, in terms of the blake's plot, i think the 'textual field' as a whole has failed our students; the 'plotless fractal Blake' for me leaves the students performing agilely in textually deficent and obselete cul-de-sac, critically unempowered to grasp The Four Zoas and Jerusalem epics as aesthetic wholes.

As it is therefore, in the context of the current state of the field, the research in the site on The Four Zoas and Jerusalem is entirely contemporary...especially to an entirely fresh generation of current and future dissertation committed research students.

In my view it is incorrect, even misleading to begin with the current critical dead-end and obselete premise that blake's The Four Zoas and Jerusalem are 'plotless'. It seems to me that it is also the case that the theories of 'compositional plotlessness' hypothesised by all other completed full-length studies need to be re-considered in the light of the research here. In short, i believe if current and future research students write of Blake's plots in The Four Zoas and Jerusalem, without benefit of these two studies, to that extent their research will fail to make a significant contribution.

in review, the analysis of The Four Zoas is now contemporary and obviously is peer reviewed. the analysis of Jerusalem (2005) is the first full length line by line analysis of the epic's plot; in this context it stands alone. to my mind the two two studies represent the 'deconstructed' myths of the two works and display the critical value of textual focus. in context, i i suggest bentley's edition...it was not available to me when i wrote much of its early draft 1970, and stayed with keynes, though reconciled with bentley and erdman, on to its completed first draft 82, and to the formal acceptance of the bound book and the award of the doctor of philosophy. 1984. the early draft was handwritten, the the electric, then the golfball and now the internet, word and individual publication. i intend on making a visual.